Mother of Craigslist victim sues Marriott

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The mother of Julissa Brisman, who was murdered inside her room at the Boston Marriott hotel by the man dubbed the Craigslist killer, is suing the hotel chain, contending that it failed to prevent prostitution at area locations and elsewhere, allowing her daughter to offer sexual services in the room she booked and making her vulnerable to a violent attack.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday evening.

In the wrongful death suit filed earlier this week in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, Carmen Guzman of New York City argues that the company knew prostitution had occurred at two of its hotels in Boston and Andover in the months leading up to the death of Brisman on April 14, 2009, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

Guzman argued the company also should have been on high alert for prostitution at its city hotels on April 14, since a prostitute was robbed and gagged at gunpoint at a hotel adjacent to the Boston Marriott Copley four days earlier.

She also asserts that Marriott knew or should have known that Brisman, 25, was working as a prostitute on the night she was killed, because a steady flow of men came and went from her room in the hours leading up to her death.

“Marriott had a duty to take reasonable measures to prevent criminal activity, including prostitution, from occurring within its hotels,’’ the complaint states, adding that the company’s negligence was “the proximate cause’’ of Brisman’s death.

Brisman had advertised massage services on Craigslist and was fatally shot by a client who had arranged a meeting with her at the hotel.

The suit argues the hotel chain knew of prostitution at two of its hotels.

Philip Markoff, a Boston University medical student charged in her murder, killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.